president obama and republican challenger mitt romney squared off in denver wednesday night in the first of three presidential campaigns. drilling obama in the polls of several battleground states, romney sought to rejuvenate his campaign with an attack on what he called president obama's policies of trickle-down government. >> i am concerned the path we're on has been unsuccessful. the president has a view to one similar when he ran four years ago, that a bigger government spending more, taxing more, regulating more -- a trickle- down government -- would work. that is not the right answer for america. >> president obama was more subdued in his comments, failing to make one mention of romney's infamous 47%, and his background of bain capital. addressing romney's tax plan, obama said romney's effort to cut taxes for the wealthy would be to the gutting of essential government programs. box for 18 months he has been running on this tax plan. five weeks before the election, now he is saying his big, bold idea is, "never mind." the fact is, if you are lowering the rates the way you described,